


Fire and Water

by Untherius



Series: Co-Sovereignty [3]
Category: Emberverse - S. M. Stirling, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Tangled (2010)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-06
Updated: 2012-03-06
Packaged: 2017-11-01 13:21:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/357266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Untherius/pseuds/Untherius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eugene, Rapunzel, and their family pause in Panama to await the remainder of their people during their northward migration.  While sunbathing, they meet some unexpected new friends, who give them, and Rapunzel in particular, a new dream.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fire and Water

Puente de las Americas, west of Panama City ruins  
August 11, CY 5, 2016 AD

Rapunzel stood at the end of a jetty built just south of the Puente de las Americas at the southern end of the Panama Canal. The mass of steel girders spanning the waterway towered over her. To the southeast, smoke still rose from the fortress of Isla Perico.

Isla Perico was one of three islands connected to the mainland by a pre-Change causeway. It had been fortified right after the Change when a band of survivors had barricaded themselves against the hordes of refugees streaming out of Panama City. It had since become the capital of a new Panamanian government patterned after the old Spanish feudal system and had, until just a couple of days ago, been ruled by a particularly nasty man who'd called himself Don Juan-Baptiste Manuel Zorgo.

Zorgo had made the mistake of trying to personally press Rapunzel and her family into a labor gang, military service, and a charnel house. It was the last mistake he ever made, one from which he would never have the opportunity to learn. Rapunzel had never taken kindly to anyone making threats against her family. It had taken the collective persuasive power of Eugene and their children to convince her not to lay waste to the Prussian army during the fall of Corona.

Now things were different. The world had Changed. The attack on Corona had been political. This was personal. Mainly to keep Rapunzel from getting herself killed, Eugene—with arrow-on-string—Hermann, Wolfgang, and Karl had followed her as she pursued Zorgo and his rapidly-shrinking army across the Avenida Amador to Isla Naos and thence to Isla Perico. She'd thankfully had the presence of mind to spare all con-combatants and refrain from reducing the entire island to a lump of molten, glassy rock.

Still quite literally fuming, Rapunzel had declared possession by right of war, and then promptly turned over the government of the country to the civilian residents of those islands to run as they pleased. Eugene asked her why she hadn't taken over as Queen, but she didn't want to talk about it, so he'd dropped the subject.

Now the rising sun fell on the mostly-naked bodies of the Fitzherberts. They'd shed most of their clothing partly because they were taking their morning sun-bath and partly because the central Panamanian weather was so warm and tropical.

“This doesn't feel like home,” said Rapunzel abruptly.

“Oh?” said Eugene. He knew where the conversation would be headed and she'd evidently calmed down enough to talk about it.

“I know it's time,” she continued, “to find a place to settle...permanently. The world wasn't ready for us. Now that it's experienced the impossible, maybe it is. But not here. I don't feel a connection to it. I almost did in Trevelin and that was....” Her voice trailed off.

“That was the closest to home you've felt since leaving Corona,” Eugene finished.

Rapunzel sighed heavily. “Eugene...I _am_ Corona!” Her tone was less one of irritation and more the one she used when she was being immovably definite about something. Eugene called it her nonnegotiable tone. She didn't use if often, but when she did, the listener could almost feel the forcefulness flowing off of her like a physical wave and woe to the one at whom it was directed. Fortunately, it wasn't directed at anyone in particular at the moment.

“You're right,” said Eugene simply.

Neither of them had officially abdicated their thrones and it was Rapunzel's own birthright, so she was still Queen of Corona, even if only technically so. As such, she still embodied the spirit of that country and in a sense, wherever she was, _that_ was Corona. They'd even half-joked about it by naming their house in Trevelin “Corona.” She'd talked about it enough and the whole family had wished for a long time that they could find some corner of the world that they could claim as the geopolitical territory of Corona. That possibility had reawakened in the wake of the Change.

Rapunzel was suddenly aware of something large and mammalian in the water off the end of the jetty. She looked down to see a girl bobbing curiously in the slight waves about a meter out. Rapunzel knelt down.  
“Well, hello there,” she said good-naturedly.

Eugene was still amused at how quickly his wife's mood could change. She still managed to strike a balance between the adorable innocence she'd had when they first met and the queenly demeanor she'd developed since then. Eugene found it irresistible.

The girl in the water swished backward a little, an expression of mild alarm on her face.

“Oh, don't worry,” said Rapunzel, “we won't hurt you. What's your name?”

The girl drew closer, peering curiously at Rapunzel. “Anne, Ma'am,” she said, her accent a curious blend of English and something that sounded vaguely eastern European, “Anne Swift.”

“Hello, Anne,” continued Rapunzel, “my name's Rapunzel and this is my husband Eugene and these are our children.” She motioned to her offspring, who'd now gathered behind their progenitors.

“Come on out of there,” said Eugene, kneeling down himself and extending a hand. “You must be cold.”

Anne giggled. “Not at all, Sir. This water's tropical! You should feel the water near England...now _that's_ cold!”

“Surely it's warmer out here,” Eugene continued. “Besides, you can't tread water forever, can you?”

“Of course I can!” she replied. “Well...almost.”

Eugene and Rapunzel looked at each other and then back at Anne. They couldn't be sure, but they thought they saw something shiny flashing intermittently beneath the surface. It was hard to tell, for the water was turbid from recent runoff and algae growth.

“Well, now, that's just silly,” said Rapunzel lightly. “Come on out of there and let us at least give you something to eat.”

“That's alright, Ma'am,” said Anne politely. “I've just eaten. The fishing has improved since the oceans quieted. You should try it.”

Rapunzel raised an eyebrow. She was pretty sure Anne was referring to what Howl called the Shift, what she herself called the Cooling, and what most people they'd met called the Change.

“Please?” said Rapunzel.

Anne just giggled again, then arced backward and slipped beneath the surface, her lithe, naked body followed by...a fish tail?

“Wait,” said Sophia, “was that...a mermaid?”

“It sure looked that way,” said Eugene.

“I didn't think they actually existed,” said Eva.

“Apparently they do,” said Wolfgang.

They gazed after the mermaid called Anne for what felt like many long moments before resuming their sunbath. When they'd finished, they turned to walk back down the jetty to their camp. They were waiting for the rest of the family before continuing north. They'd split up upon leaving Lake Rosario the spring following the Change and had agreed to rendezvous at their current location. One group of them had already arrived. Rapunzel and Sophia were capable of sensing the others coming for many miles, but there was still no sign of them for at least as far as Lago Bayano, halfway to the old Columbian border. They were in for another day of mostly boredom, interspersed with food-gathering and combat practice.

Another disturbance in the water caught Rapunzel's attention and she stopped to look back. Anne had reappeared, accompanied by an older-looking man and woman.

Rapunzel's face lit up. “Miss Swift,” she said amiably, “to what do we owe the pleasure of your re-acquaintance and whom might these fine gentles be?”

“These are my parents,” she said, “Philip and Queen Syrena.”

“Our daughter told us of you,” said Syrena. “She told us you are different from the others...that you were polite to her, yet that you unleashed the power of Earth's bowels upon those who threatened your own.”

“I was watching you,” said Anne matter-of-factly. “I saw you glowing like the sun and I was curious, so I watched you and saw what you did.”

“Oh,” said Rapunzel simply.

Syrena abruptly swished around, leaped out of the water and settled on a large rock, draping her tail gracefully about it. Philip joined her a moment later and Anne a moment after that.

Rapunzel was delighted. “We've never seen mer-people before,” she said enthusiastically. “This is wonderful! We're so pleased to meet you...and your tails are so beautiful!”

Philip and Syrena extended their hands in greeting. Eugene and Rapunzel took them as they introduced themselves.

“Corona,” said Philip, “that's...” He thought for a moment. “...on the Baltic coast between Germany and Poland, yes? What are you doing so far from home...your Majesties?”

Eugene smiled to himself. He already liked these people. They were polite, direct, and honest.

“It's a long story,” said Rapunzel.

“We have time,” said Philip, “that is, if your Majesties are inclined to share.”

Rapunzel nodded to Eugene.

“Where should I begin?” he asked.

“Where else,” said Syrena, “but at the beginning?”

He nodded and began with the story of how he died. He'd always had a penchant for storytelling. Sophia walked up and sat down just as he was concluding the part about the group hug with Rapunzel and her parents. Rapunzel introduced her daughter to the Swifts, then Eugene continued his tales.

At one point, Sophia got up and went back to camp to retrieve some drinking water for her father. They lost track of time as Eugene went on and on, the Swifts listening with rapt attention. Around midday, they broke for lunch. Sophia trotted back down the jetty to camp to retrieve some nuts and jerky and Philip and Anne dove off the rock to catch some fish.

When Eugene had brought their tale up to the present, Syrena let loose with a barrage of questions that continued until dusk. By the time the royals had parted ways, the Fitzherberts had arrived at a revised version of their long-range plan.

The Swifts, all their children, and the wives their sons had met at Whitecap Bay some years back had all settled in the Galapagos Seamount and had been exploring and monitoring the waters from Cape Horn all the way to Alaska. After hearing what the Swifts knew of the situation along the western coast of North America, Eugene, Rapunzel and Sophia had decided to set their sights on Oregon as potential location for the new geopolitical seat of the Kingdom of Corona.

The trio walked back along the jetty, eager to share this new plan with the rest of the family and then with Howl via their magic mirror. Philip and Syrena were to return the next morning while the Fitzherberts took their sunbath to confirm the final version of the plan.

Several days later, the remainder of the Fitzherbert family arrived along the western side of the Canal. They'd apparently had some trouble with a former Columbian drug lord turned warlord. They'd had to fight their way out, leaving behind a power vacuum and a large, steaming lake of molten glass that had once been soil. They rested up for a couple more days before reorganizing and setting out northward through the jungles of Central America.

**Author's Note:**

> Further background on Philip's and Syrena's presence in the eastern Pacific can be found in the work entitled "Tail Currents."


End file.
